Biography

American politician; the openly gay mother of two boys, Jacques has been a member of the Massachusetts Senate since 1993. In November 2003, she was appointed head of Human Rights Campaign, a gay and lesbian advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., a position she assumes on January 1, 2004. She left the position a year later for reasons that she was not at liberty to discuss.

An attorney early in her career, she earned a B.S., Boston College (MA), 1984; J.D., Suffolk University School of Law (MA), 1987. she held a variety of public positions at the municipal levels from 1986 to 1990 and became a ten-year Democratic State Convention Delegate in 1988.

On November 30, 2004, Jacques announced that she was resigning from her position as head of the Human Rights Campaign. She would not reveal the specifics of her departure, saying only that she and the board had “a difference in management philosophy.”